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BioWare is a Canadian
video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...
based in
Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
,
Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated
medical doctors Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...
Ray Muzyka Raymond Alexander Muzyka is a Canadian investor, entrepreneur and physician. Originally trained as a medical doctor and practicing as an emergency department and family physician after graduation, he is the co-founder of video game developer Bio ...
,
Greg Zeschuk Gregory Zeschuk is a Canadian businessman who was a VP at Electronic Arts and General Manager at BioWare Austin until 2012. He co-founded video game developer BioWare in Edmonton in 1995 with Ray Muzyka and Augustine Yip, after all three earned ...
and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zeschuk. Since 2007, the company has been owned by American publisher
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
. BioWare specializes in
role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...
s, and achieved recognition for developing highly praised and successful licensed franchises: ''
Baldur's Gate ''Baldur's Gate'' is a series of role-playing video games set in the Forgotten Realms ''Dungeons & Dragons'' campaign setting. The game has spawned two series, known as the ''Bhaalspawn Saga'' and the ''Dark Alliance'', both taking place mostly ...
'', ''
Neverwinter Nights ''Neverwinter Nights'' is a series of video games developed by BioWare and Obsidian Entertainment, based on the ''Forgotten Realms'' campaign setting of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game. Aside from also being set in the Dungeons & Dra ...
'', and '' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic''. They proceeded to make several other successful games based on original intellectual property: ''
Jade Empire ''Jade Empire'' is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare, originally published by Microsoft Game Studios in 2005 as an Xbox exclusive. It was later ported to Microsoft Windows personal computers (PC) and published by 2K Games in 2007. ...
'', the ''
Mass Effect ''Mass Effect'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn and Preston Watamaniuk. The franchise depicts a distant future where humanity and several alien civilizations have colonized the known univers ...
'' series, and the ''
Dragon Age ''Dragon Age'' is a media franchise centered on a series of fantasy role-playing video games created and developed by BioWare, which have seen releases on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Th ...
'' series. In 2011, BioWare launched their first
massively multiplayer online role-playing game A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...
, '' Star Wars: The Old Republic''.


History


Foundation

BioWare was founded by
Ray Muzyka Raymond Alexander Muzyka is a Canadian investor, entrepreneur and physician. Originally trained as a medical doctor and practicing as an emergency department and family physician after graduation, he is the co-founder of video game developer Bio ...
and
Greg Zeschuk Gregory Zeschuk is a Canadian businessman who was a VP at Electronic Arts and General Manager at BioWare Austin until 2012. He co-founded video game developer BioWare in Edmonton in 1995 with Ray Muzyka and Augustine Yip, after all three earned ...
, alongside Trent Oster, his brother Brent, Zeschuk's cousin Marcel, and Augustine Yip. Of the founding team, Muzyka, Zeschuk and Yip had recently graduated from medical school at the
University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...
, and had a background in programming for use in school. Together with Yip, they had created a medical simulation programme. The three also played video games for recreation, eventually deciding to develop their own. Their success in the medical field provided them with the funding they needed to launch a video game company. To make their first game, they pooled their resources, which resulted in capital of $100,000. The company was incorporated on 1 February 1995, though formally launched on 22 May 1995.


1990s: ''Shattered Steel'' and ''Baldur's Gate''

Their first game, ''
Shattered Steel ''Shattered Steel'' is a mech simulation game released in 1996 by BioWare for MS-DOS, and later ported to Mac OS by now-defunct Logicware. It is notable for the deformable terrain effects, and for being BioWare's first developed game.BioWarBiowa ...
'', began its life as a proof-of-concept demo, similar to the ''MechWarrior'' games. This demo was submitted to ten publishers, seven of whom returned to the company with an offer. A publishing deal for ''Shattered Steel'' was eventually signed with
Interplay Entertainment Interplay Entertainment Corp. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by developers Brian Fargo, Jay Patel, Troy Worrell, and Rebecca ...
. Brent Oster and Trent Oster left BioWare at that time to form Pyrotek Studios, which continued developing ''Shattered Steel'' but broke up a year later, with Trent returning to BioWare to finish the game. BioWare's first game was released the following year. ''Shattered Steel''s release was described by
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
as a "modest success" with "decent sales". Two noteworthy points were the deformable terrain (player weapon damage caused craters in the environment) and zone damage (well-aimed gunfire could shoot mounted weapons off enemies). A sequel to ''Shattered Steel'' was planned for 1998 but never realized. BioWare's founders and staff were keenly interested in both computerized and pen-and-paper variants of
role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...
s. Their next development project, therefore, was determined to be a role-playing game. When Interplay financed "exploratory development", BioWare presented the publishers with a demo called ''Battleground: Infinity''. Interplay suggested that the demonstrated gameplay engine would be well-suited to the ''
Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...
'' licence which it had acquired from
Strategic Simulations Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) was a video game developer and video game publisher, publisher with over 100 titles to its credit from its founding in 1979 to its dissolution in 1994. The company was especially noted for its numerous wargames ...
. Accordingly, ''Infinity'' was reworked in line with the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' ruleset. The result was ''
Baldur's Gate ''Baldur's Gate'' is a series of role-playing video games set in the Forgotten Realms ''Dungeons & Dragons'' campaign setting. The game has spawned two series, known as the ''Bhaalspawn Saga'' and the ''Dark Alliance'', both taking place mostly ...
'', with a development cycle of three years. During this time, the three doctors continued to practice medicine. The demands of development later prompted Muzyka and Zeschuck to leave medicine and move into full-time development. Augustine Yip decided to continue with his medical practice. ''Baldur's Gate'' sold more than two million copies after its release, nearly matching the sales of '' Diablo''. Following the success of ''Baldur's Gate'', the Infinity Engine was used for the games '' Planescape: Torment'' and the ''Icewind Dale'' series. The success of ''Baldur's Gate'' was followed by an expansion pack for the game: '' Tales of the Sword Coast''.


2000s: EA acquisition, ''Mass Effect'' and ''Dragon Age''

At this point, BioWare decided to return to the action genre. The company's initial thought was to develop a sequel to ''Shattered Steel'', but eventually a sequel to ''
MDK ''MDK'' is a 1997 third-person shooter video game developed by Shiny Entertainment for Microsoft Windows. It was ported to Mac OS by Shokwave, and to the PlayStation by Neversoft. It was published on all systems by PIE in North America, with S ...
'' from
Shiny Entertainment Shiny Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Laguna Beach, California. Founded in October 1993 by David Perry (game developer), David Perry, Shiny was the creator of video games such as ''Earthworm Jim (video game), E ...
was chosen for development. ''
MDK2 ''MDK2'' is a 2000 third-person shooter, Action-adventure game, action-adventure video game developed by BioWare and published by Interplay Entertainment for the Dreamcast, Microsoft Windows, Windows and PlayStation 2. It is a sequel to the 1997 ...
'' was released on PC,
Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, N ...
, and eventually
PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...
, offering BioWare their first taste of developing games for consoles. ''MDK2'' drew the same level of praise as its predecessor but, despite the success, BioWare returned to the ''Baldur's Gate'' series for their next project. '' Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn'' was released in 2000, two years after the release of ''Baldur's Gate''. ''Baldur's Gate II'' sold two million copies, matching the sales of the first game in the series. However, the success of both ''Baldur's Gate II'' and ''MDK2'' was not enough to stabilize Interplay financially. Subsequently, BioWare began to work with
Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. It is the current owner of the Atari brand through Atari Interactive. Bec ...
, which was later renamed to
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...
. ''
Neverwinter Nights ''Neverwinter Nights'' is a series of video games developed by BioWare and Obsidian Entertainment, based on the ''Forgotten Realms'' campaign setting of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game. Aside from also being set in the Dungeons & Dra ...
'' was originally to be published by Interplay, but the company lost the licence of the game to
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...
and part of their ''
Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...
'' licence to BioWare. After selling their D&D licence to Atari, BioWare developed '' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic'' and ''
Jade Empire ''Jade Empire'' is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare, originally published by Microsoft Game Studios in 2005 as an Xbox exclusive. It was later ported to Microsoft Windows personal computers (PC) and published by 2K Games in 2007. ...
''. It had publishing relationships with Interplay Entertainment,
Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. It is the current owner of the Atari brand through Atari Interactive. Bec ...
, under its new name Atari,
LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as ...
, and
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
. The next few years saw a number of changes in BioWare's corporate status. In November 2005, it was announced that BioWare and
Pandemic Studios Pandemic Studios, LLC was an American video game developer based in Westwood, Los Angeles. Andrew Goldman and Josh Resnick founded the studio in 1998 after leaving Activision. Pandemic Studios, alongside BioWare, was acquired in 2005 by Elevation ...
(itself founded by former
Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
employees) would be joining forces, with private equity fund
Elevation Partners Elevation Partners was an American private equity firm that invested in intellectual property, technology and media companies. The firm had $1.9 billion of assets under management. The firm was founded in 2004 and was headquartered in New York C ...
investing in the partnership. On 11 October 2007, however, it was announced that this new partnership (organized as VG Holding Corp.) had been bought by
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
. BioWare therefore became a unit of EA, but retained its own branding. In 2007, BioWare released the science fiction role-playing game ''
Mass Effect ''Mass Effect'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn and Preston Watamaniuk. The franchise depicts a distant future where humanity and several alien civilizations have colonized the known univers ...
''. The following year, BioWare released '' Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood'' on the
Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...
, its first title for a
handheld game console A handheld game console, or simply handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the cons ...
. Later, EA announced that BioWare would be merged with
Mythic Entertainment Mythic Entertainment (formerly BioWare Mythic, EA Mythic, Inc., and Interworld Productions) was a video game developer in Fairfax, Virginia that was most widely recognized for developing the 2001 massively multiplayer online role-playing game '' ...
, another division of EA, so that they could have all of their role-playing game development in one business unit. The growth of the MMORPG group as part of Electronic Arts in 2008 resulted in three additional studios being added to the BioWare group outside BioWare's original home base in Edmonton. The first, located in
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
, and headed by industry veterans
Gordon Walton (Conrad) Gordon Walton, Jr. (born 1956) is an American video game developer and executive producer who has worked with many North American online game companies, from Maxis to Electronic Arts to Sony Online to BioWare. Since 1977 he has personal ...
and Richard Vogel, was created to work on the ''Star Wars: The Old Republic'' MMORPG project. Both the studio and the project were announced on 13 March 2006. On 2 March 2009, BioWare announced it had opened a new studio in
Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
,
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, to assist with existing projects as necessary. During the mid-2000s, BioWare staff developed a number of video game projects which were ultimately canceled. A handheld spin-off for ''Mass Effect'' franchise titled ''Mass Effect: Corsair'', inspired by the gameplay of '' Star Control'' and played from a first-person perspective, was briefly explored as a potential project for the
Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...
in 2008. A sequel to ''Jade Empire'' was under development at one point. The project transitioned into a spiritual successor codenamed ''Revolver'', which was canceled by 2008. Trent Oster led a team which worked on a spy-themed role-playing game codenamed ''Agent'' prior to his second departure from BioWare in 2009. Unused concept art for ''Agent'' and ''Revolver'' are featured in the art book ''BioWare: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development'', published in January 2021. On 24 June 2009, Electronic Arts announced a restructuring of their role-playing and massively multiplayer online games development into a new group that included both Mythic Entertainment and BioWare. Ray Muzyka, co-founder and general manager of BioWare, was appointed the Group general manager of this newly formed "BioWare Group". BioWare's other co-founder, Greg Zeschuk, became the Group Creative Officer for the new MMORPG studio group. BioWare's studios remained unchanged and continued to report to Muzyka. Near the end of 2009, BioWare released the critically acclaimed fantasy role-playing game '' Dragon Age: Origins''.


2010s: Muzyka and Zeschuk's departure, ''Mass Effect'' on hiatus, ''Anthem''

In January 2010, BioWare released the sequel to
Mass Effect ''Mass Effect'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn and Preston Watamaniuk. The franchise depicts a distant future where humanity and several alien civilizations have colonized the known univers ...
, ''
Mass Effect 2 ''Mass Effect 2'' is an action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in 2010 and PlayStation 3 in 2011. It is the second installment in the ''Mass Effect'' series and a ...
'', which would go on to receive critical acclaim and many awards. The company announced that it would be opening up a new customer service office in
Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...
, Ireland, in 2011. BioWare completed three major games between 2011 and 2012. The
massively multiplayer online role-playing game A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...
(MMORPG) '' Star Wars: The Old Republic'' is based on BioWare's previous contribution to the
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
franchise, and was announced on 21 October 2008, although BioWare had first mentioned an unspecified new collaboration with
LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as ...
in October the previous year. The other games were ''
Dragon Age II ''Dragon Age II'' is a 2011 action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts (EA). It is the second major game in the ''Dragon Age'' series and the successor to '' Dragon Age: Origins'' (2009). Set in the wor ...
'', the sequel to ''Dragon Age: Origins'', and ''
Mass Effect 3 ''Mass Effect 3'' is an action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. The third major entry in the ''Mass Effect'' series and the final installment of the original trilogy, it was released in March 2012 fo ...
''. Following the release of ''Mass Effect 3'' in March 2012, numerous players complained about its endings failing to fulfill the developer's earlier promises regarding the conclusion of the trilogy. In response to the controversy surrounding the game's ending sequence, BioWare announced on 5 April that they would reschedule their post-release content production and release an "Extended Cut" DLC that would expand the original endings and address the most common points of critique. The Extended Cut was released as a free download on 26 June 2012. On 18 September 2012, the next day after the official announcement of the third ''Dragon Age'' title, both
Ray Muzyka Raymond Alexander Muzyka is a Canadian investor, entrepreneur and physician. Originally trained as a medical doctor and practicing as an emergency department and family physician after graduation, he is the co-founder of video game developer Bio ...
and
Greg Zeschuk Gregory Zeschuk is a Canadian businessman who was a VP at Electronic Arts and General Manager at BioWare Austin until 2012. He co-founded video game developer BioWare in Edmonton in 1995 with Ray Muzyka and Augustine Yip, after all three earned ...
, two of the remaining co-founders of BioWare, simultaneously announced they would be retiring from the gaming industry. After almost a year without a formal head, EA appointed Matthew Bromberg the group general manager of the BioWare label on 9 September 2013. Former CEO and president of
Major League Gaming Major League Gaming Corp. (MLG) is a professional esports organization. MLG is headquartered in New York City, New York and was founded in 2002 by Sundance DiGiovanni and Mike Sepso. MLG has held official video game tournaments throughout the ...
, Bromberg worked as the general manager of BioWare Austin since 2012; after his promotion,
Jeff Hickman Jeff Hickman is a video game designer, producer and customer support specialist currently working as the executive producer of live services for BioWare. His main task is to oversee the live services and operations of Star Wars: The Old Republ ...
took over as the general manager in Austin. Aaryn Flynn remained in charge of BioWare Canada (Edmonton and Montreal) and
Jon Van Caneghem Jon Van Caneghem (born 1962/1963)Victory Games Victory Games may refer to: *Victory Games (Avalon Hill) (1982–1991), an American board game developer, a subsidiary of Avalon Hill Games *Victory Games (EA) Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Red ...
and Waystone Studio (also parts of the BioWare label). After acquiring and dismantling
LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as ...
,
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
announced in May 2013 that Electronic Arts will produce future ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' games, "in addition to the BioWare team, which is already developing for the Star Wars franchise." In November 2013, teaser images from the next instalment of the ''Mass Effect'' series were released. At
E3 2014 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014 (E3 2014) was the 20th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It began on June 10, 2014, and ended on June 12, 2014, with 48,900 total attendees. Ma ...
, BioWare Edmonton announced working on a new (unnamed) original intellectual property in addition to continuing their established series. Another new IP, titled ''
Shadow Realms ''Shadow Realms'' is a cancelled Action role-playing game, action role-playing video game previously under development by BioWare's Austin studio. The game was set to be published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, and was scheduled for r ...
'' is an episodic 4 vs. 1 story-driven online action role-playing game, and was announced on
Gamescom 2014 Gamescom (stylized as gamescom) is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Since 2018, it has been organised by ''game – Verband der deutschen Games-Branche'' (English: Associa ...
. On 9 February 2015, Bioware Austin announced that development on ''Shadow Realms'' would not continue.
Casey Hudson Casey Hudson is a Canadian video game developer, known for his work on several of BioWare's video games, and mainly the ''Mass Effect'' trilogy as game director. Biography After obtaining a degree in mechanical engineering, Hudson began his car ...
, the creator of the ''
Mass Effect ''Mass Effect'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn and Preston Watamaniuk. The franchise depicts a distant future where humanity and several alien civilizations have colonized the known univers ...
'' series, left BioWare in May 2014, while
Drew Karpyshyn Drew Karpyshyn (born July 28, 1971) is a Canadian video game scenario writer, scriptwriter and novelist. He served as a senior writer for BioWare's ''Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (video game), Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic'' and ...
, writer of '' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic'' and the first two ''Mass Effect'' games, returned in 2015, ''
Dragon Age ''Dragon Age'' is a media franchise centered on a series of fantasy role-playing video games created and developed by BioWare, which have seen releases on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Th ...
''s writer
David Gaider David Gaider is a Canadian Narrative Designer and writer. He was the lead writer and creator of the setting for the role-playing video game series ''Dragon Age''. He worked for Edmonton, Alberta-located game developer BioWare from 1999 to 2016, ...
left BioWare in January 2016. Chris Wynn and Chris Schlerf, both of whom had an important role in the development of '' Mass Effect: Andromeda'', left in December 2015 and February 2016 respectively.
Alexis Kennedy Alexis Kennedy (born 1972) is a British video game writer, designer and entrepreneur. His video game work includes '' Fallen London'', ''Sunless Sea'' and '' Cultist Simulator''. He co-founded Weather Factory, an independent game studio in Londo ...
, co-founder of
Failbetter Games Failbetter Games is a British video game developer and interactive fiction studio based in London. History Founded in 2009 by Alexis Kennedy and Paul Arendt, Failbetter is chiefly known for its '' Fallen London'' Victorian Gothic franchise ...
and the creative director of ''
Dragon Age ''Dragon Age'' is a media franchise centered on a series of fantasy role-playing video games created and developed by BioWare, which have seen releases on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Th ...
: The Last Court'', joined BioWare as its "first ever guest writer" in September 2016. On 13 September 2016, EA announced the formation of EA Worldwide Studios, which would consist of BioWare Studios,
EA Mobile EA Mobile Inc. is an American video game development studio of the publisher Electronic Arts (EA) for mobile platforms. The studio's primary business is producing games for mobile phones. It has also produced other entertainment-related softwa ...
, and
Maxis Maxis is an American video game developer and a Division (business), division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright (game designer), Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by Electronic Arts, EA in 1997. Maxi ...
, and led by
DICE Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...
co-founder Patrick Soderlund. At the same time, Samantha Ryan, head of EA Mobile and Maxis, was appointed the new head of BioWare Studios. Released in March 2017, ''Andromeda'' was at the center of controversy of equal proportions, if not higher than that around the third chapter; starting with heavy criticisms that were addressed before the video game was released to the lukewarm response received by the specialized press and the fandom with sales lower than the previous ''Mass Effect'' chapters. Given the circumstances
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
has reportedly frozen the entire ''
Mass Effect ''Mass Effect'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn and Preston Watamaniuk. The franchise depicts a distant future where humanity and several alien civilizations have colonized the known univers ...
'' series, downgrading the BioWare Montréal branch from a leading development team to a support team, and later merging it into
Motive Studios Motive Studio (also known as EA Motive and Motive) is a Canadian video game developer and studio of Electronic Arts (EA) based in Montreal. History Motive Studio was founded within Electronic Arts (EA) by Jade Raymond, a former Ubisoft exec ...
. During EA's ''EA Play'' pre-E3 press conference on 10 June 2017, BioWare revealed ''
Anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short ...
'', a new
action role-playing game An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing genre. Definition The games emphasize real-time combat where the player h ...
, with BioWare's story writer,
Drew Karpyshyn Drew Karpyshyn (born July 28, 1971) is a Canadian video game scenario writer, scriptwriter and novelist. He served as a senior writer for BioWare's ''Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (video game), Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic'' and ...
, who previously worked on ''
Mass Effect ''Mass Effect'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn and Preston Watamaniuk. The franchise depicts a distant future where humanity and several alien civilizations have colonized the known univers ...
'' and ''
Mass Effect 2 ''Mass Effect 2'' is an action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in 2010 and PlayStation 3 in 2011. It is the second installment in the ''Mass Effect'' series and a ...
'', contributing to the new game. In July 2017, Aaryn Flynn, General Manager of BioWare, announced that he would depart from the company. Hudson returned to BioWare as its new General Manager. Lead story developer for ''Jade Empire'' and ''Dragon Age'' creative director Mike Laidlaw announced his departure from BioWare in October 2017 after 14 years with the company.
James Ohlen James Ohlen is a video game designer. He was Senior Creative Director of BioWare where he worked for 22 years prior to starting the publishing company Arcanum Worlds in 2018. In 2019, Ohlen became the lead of a new internal development studio Arc ...
, the lead designer of the ''Baldur's Gate'' series, ''Neverwinter Nights'', ''Knights of the Old Republic'', ''Jade Empire'', and ''Dragon Age: Origins'', as well as the game director of ''The Old Republic'' MMO, left the studio after 22 years in July 2018. On 24 September 2019, it was announced that BioWare had moved from their old location on Calgary Trail into 3 stories of the
Epcor Tower Epcor Tower is an office tower in downtown Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The tower is capped by two spires that are capped with four flagpoles each. When the spires were taken into account, it was the tallest building in Edmonton from 2011 to 2017. ...
in downtown Edmonton.


2020s: ''Dragon Age 4'', ''Mass Effect: Legendary Edition'' and Hudson/Darrah's departures

On 7 November 2020 or "N7 Day", a date first declared in 2012 by BioWare as an annual "worldwide celebration" of the ''Mass Effect franchise'', '' Mass Effect: Legendary Edition'' was announced as well as an all-new entry to the franchise that had just started development. On 3 December 2020, both Hudson and Mark Darrah, the executive producer on the ''Dragon Age'' series, announced their departures from the studio. Electronic Arts stated that work on the ''Mass Effect'' and ''Dragon Age'' games would still continue at the studio. On 10 December 2020, a teaser trailer for the ''next Mass Effect'' game was shown at
The Game Awards The Game Awards is an annual awards ceremony honoring achievements in the video game industry. Established in 2014, the shows are produced and hosted by game journalist Geoff Keighley, who worked on its predecessor, the Spike Video Game Awards, ...
. On 14 May 2021, '' Mass Effect: Legendary Edition'' was released on
Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
,
PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
, and the
Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
series.


Technology

Between 1998 and 2011, BioWare developed a number of in-house
video game engines Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...
to serve as technical basis for their games. Some of these engines were then licensed to other companies to develop their own games. Others came with modding toolkits, allowing the
fan community A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...
to implement original adventures using the technology of BioWare's games. BioWare created the Infinity Engine to use it as a core component for development of 2D
role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...
s based on ''
Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...
'', the ''Baldur's Gate'' series (1998–2001). The engine was also used by
Black Isle Studios Black Isle Studios is a division of the developer and publisher Interplay Entertainment that develops role-playing video games. It has published several games from other developers. Black Isle is based in Irvine, California. The division was f ...
to create the critically acclaimed '' Planescape: Torment'' (1999) and the ''Icewind Dale'' series (2000–2002). When Beamdog sought out a license from BioWare and started engineering enhanced versions of these games in 2012, they created an updated version Infinity Engine, referred to as the "Infinity Enhanced Engine" (alternatively Infinity Plus Engine or Infinity Bless Engine). The was the successor to the Infinity Engine, featuring full 3D environments,
real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...
lighting and shadows, and
surround sound Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener ( surround channels). Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to sur ...
. BioWare used the Aurora Engine to produce their 2002 ''
Neverwinter Nights ''Neverwinter Nights'' is a series of video games developed by BioWare and Obsidian Entertainment, based on the ''Forgotten Realms'' campaign setting of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game. Aside from also being set in the Dungeons & Dra ...
'', as well as two expansion packs. The game included the so-called "Aurora toolset", a collection of tools allowing users to create their own digital
adventure module An adventure is a playable scenario in a tabletop role-playing game. These can be constructed by gamemasters for their players, and are also released by game publishers as pre-made adventure modules. Different types of designs exist, including l ...
s to be played either in single-player or in online multiplayer. The toolset enjoyed great popularity among the modding community, with over a thousand fan-made modules produced in it within half a year after the release.
Obsidian Entertainment Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Irvine, California. It was founded in June 2003, shortly before the closure of Black Isle Studios, by ex-Black Isle employees Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, Chris Par ...
(successor to Black Isle Studios) used an updated version of BioWare's Aurora, titled "Electron Engine", to produce ''
Neverwinter Nights 2 ''Neverwinter Nights 2'' is a role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Atari Interactive. It is the sequel to BioWare's ''Neverwinter Nights (2002 video game), Neverwinter Nights'', based on the ''Dungeons & ...
'' (2006) and its three expansion packs (2007–2009). Like the original, the Electron toolset was released with the game. The Polish studio
CD Projekt Red CD Projekt S.A. () is a Polish video game developer, publisher and distributor based in Warsaw, founded in May 1994 by Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński. Iwiński and Kiciński were video game retailers before they founded the company, whi ...
used the Aurora Engine to develop ''
The Witcher ''The Witcher'' ( pl, Wiedźmin ) is a series of six fantasy novels and 15 short stories written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The series revolves around the eponymous "witcher", Geralt of Rivia. In Sapkowski's works, "witchers" are bea ...
'', the 2007 video game adaptation of the Polish fantasy novel series, although the rendering module was rewritten from scratch. BioWare used an updated version of the Aurora, titled the Odyssey Engine, to produce '' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic'' in 2003 and their first original intellectual property role-playing game ''
Jade Empire ''Jade Empire'' is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare, originally published by Microsoft Game Studios in 2005 as an Xbox exclusive. It was later ported to Microsoft Windows personal computers (PC) and published by 2K Games in 2007. ...
'' in 2005. The Odyssey Engine was the first BioWare engine to allow developing for
video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...
s, with both ''Knights of the Old Republic'' and ''Jade Empire'' originally released for the
Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...
before being ported to the PC platform. Obsidian Entertainment used the Odyssey Engine to develop '' Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords'' (2004), a sequel to the original ''Knights of the Old Republic''. BioWare maintained limited oversight on Obsidian's development of ''The Sith Lords'', as well as ''Neverwinter Nights 2''. The succeeded the Odyssey Engine and, among other things, supported
PhysX PhysX is an open-source realtime physics engine middleware SDK developed by Nvidia as a part of Nvidia GameWorks software suite. Initially, video games supporting PhysX were meant to be accelerated by PhysX PPU (expansion cards designed by Ag ...
hardware acceleration. It was used to produce ''Dragon Age: Origins'' (2009) and its expansion pack (2010). Like ''Neverwinter Nights'', ''Origins'' was released with a toolset to allow the players to run their own adventure modules on the Eclipse Engine. An upgraded version of the Eclipse Engine, internally known as the Lycium Engine, was used to produce ''Dragon Age II'' (2011). In September 2004, BioWare acquired a license to use
Unreal Engine 3 Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game '' Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genre ...
from developer
Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, M ...
. Unreal Engine 3 would ultimately be used to develop the original ''
Mass Effect ''Mass Effect'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn and Preston Watamaniuk. The franchise depicts a distant future where humanity and several alien civilizations have colonized the known univers ...
'' trilogy (2007–2012), as well as the remastered '' Mass Effect: Legendary Edition'' in 2021. In 2013, EA confirmed that all future games developed by BioWare will be made on DICE's
Frostbite engine Frostbite is a game engine developed by DICE (company), DICE, designed for cross-platform use on Microsoft Windows, Seventh generation of video game consoles, seventh generation game consoles PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Eighth generation of video ...
. All three of BioWare's latest games (''Dragon Age: Inquisition'', ''Mass Effect: Andromeda'' and ''Anthem'') were developed on Frostbite 3 as part of the general move towards a unified technology foundation across all of Electronic Arts' development studios.


Subsidiaries

* BioWare Austin in
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
; formed in March 2006 specifically to develop '' Star Wars: The Old Republic'' (with assistance from BioWare Edmonton), BioWare Austin later began working on a new IP called ''
Shadow Realms ''Shadow Realms'' is a cancelled Action role-playing game, action role-playing video game previously under development by BioWare's Austin studio. The game was set to be published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, and was scheduled for r ...
'', but production was shelved in February 2015 in order to focus on the continuing production of '' Dragon Age: Inquisition'' and ''The Old Republic''.


Former

* BioWare Montreal in
Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...
; formed in March 2009 to assist the Edmonton studio where necessary. Led the development of DLC for the ''Mass Effect'' series as well as '' Mass Effect: Andromeda''. BioWare Montreal was merged with EA's
Motive Studio Motive Studio (also known as EA Motive and Motive) is a Canadian video game developer and studio of Electronic Arts (EA) based in Montreal. History Motive Studio was founded within Electronic Arts (EA) by Jade Raymond, a former Ubisoft execu ...
in August 2017. * BioWare San Francisco in
San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
; founded as EA2D and developed ''
Mirror's Edge ''Mirror's Edge'' is an action-adventure platform game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2008, and for Microsoft Windows in 2009. Set in a near-future city, the game follows th ...
2D'' and ''Dragon Age: Legends'', became part of BioWare, but was closed in February 2013. *
BioWare Mythic Mythic Entertainment (formerly BioWare Mythic, EA Mythic, Inc., and Interworld Productions) was a video game developer in Fairfax, Virginia that was most widely recognized for developing the 2001 massively multiplayer online role-playing game ' ...
in
Fairfax, Virginia The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...
; formerly known as Mythic Entertainment, until June 2009, re-renamed to Mythic Entertainment in November 2012 and closed completely in 2014. * Victory Games in
Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
; founded in February 2011 as BioWare Victory to develop the 2013 ''
Command & Conquer ''Command & Conquer'' (''C&C'') is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game franchise, first developed by Westwood Studios. The first game was one of the earliest of the RTS genre, itself based on Westwood Studios' influential strategy game ''Dune I ...
'', it had since dropped the BioWare label in November 2012 but remained part of the BioWare group. The studio dissolved in October 2013. * Waystone Games in Los Angeles, California; the developer of ''
Dawngate ''Dawngate'' was a proposed multiplayer online battle arena video game developed by Waystone Games and published by Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Fou ...
'', which was cancelled in November 2014. * BioWare Sacramento in
Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...
; founded as KlickNation 2008, acquired and renamed BioWare Sacramento in 2011, and renamed EA Capital Games in 2014.


Games developed


Awards and recognition

The full list of awards can be found on their web site. * Spike TV's 2010 Video Game Awards: Studio of the Year (2010) * Hall of Fame induction (2010) In addition to numerous game awards, in October 2008, the company was named one of
Alberta's Top Employers Canada's Top 100 Employers is an annual editorial competition that recognizes the best places in Canada to work. First held in 1999, the project aims to single out the employers that lead their industries in offering exceptional working conditions ...
by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by the ''
Calgary Herald The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network. History ''The ...
'' and the ''
Edmonton Journal The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. It is part of the Postmedia Network. History The ''Journal'' was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham — as ...
''. BioWare's co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk were named as members of the
Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...
in December 2018 "for
heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...
revolutionary contributions to the video game industry as a developer and co-founder of an internationally renowned studio."


References


External links

* {{Authority control 1995 establishments in Alberta Companies based in Edmonton Electronic Arts 2007 mergers and acquisitions Canadian companies established in 1995 Video game companies established in 1995 Video game companies of Canada Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies